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A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

  • Free to read
  • 1 hour to read
  • 9 chapters
  • Reading level: 5th grade

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare is a comedy play written in about 1595 or 1596. Set in ancient Athens, the story weaves together multiple plots surrounding the wedding of Duke Theseus and Amazon Queen Hippolyta. Four young Athenian lovers become entangled in romantic confusion, while amateur actors rehearse a play for the wedding celebration. When both groups wander into an enchanted forest, mischievous fairies manipulate their affairs with magical potions, creating chaos under the moonlight as the fairy king and queen pursue their own domestic quarrel.

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  • Comedy plays
  • Courtship
  • Athens (Greece)
  • Fairy plays

Read the opening

Scene I: Athens. A room in the Palace of Theseus

Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate and Attendants.

THESEUS.
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon; but oh, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager,
Long withering out a young man’s revenue.

HIPPOLYTA.
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.

THESEUS.
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.

[Exit Philostrate.]

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Contents

  1. Scene I: Athens. A room in the Palace of Theseus
  2. Scene II: The Same. A Room in a Cottage
  3. Scene I: A wood near Athens
  4. Scene II: Another Part of the wood
  5. Scene I: The Wood
  6. Scene II: Another Part of the wood
  7. Scene I: The Wood
  8. Scene II: Athens. A Room in Quince’s House
  9. Scene I: Athens. An Apartment in the Palace of Theseus

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About this edition

This free edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare comes from Project Gutenberg eBook #1514, released 1998-11-01. It is in the public domain in the United States, so you can read it here in full at no cost, on any phone, tablet or computer. Genre: Science-Fiction & Fantasy, Romance, Humour, Plays/Films/Dramas, Classics of Literature, British Literature.

Other editions: eBook #1113, eBook #1778, eBook #2242.

Summary provided by Project Gutenberg (automatically generated).

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